. >>> and to or other major story, the looming fiscal cliff. lawmakers worked through the night to try to reach an agreement. >> without a deal, taxes are set to go up for just about every american. tahman bradley joins usy washington with more on the stalemate. >> reporter: john and paula, good morning. if there is no breakthrough today, the country will go over the cliff. talks continue but this morning, there is still no deal. >> we'll have further announcements, perhaps, at 11:00 in the morning. i certainly hope so. >> reporter: republicans and democrats negotiated all week wednesday the hope of passing legislation to protect most people from massive tax hike. >> our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle class families do not go up that would hurt our economy badly. >> reporter: there was optimism over a deal over the weekend. that ended when harry reid said he could not present a counterproposal. mcconnell phoned for help. >> i placed a call to the vice president to see if he could help jump start the ne fwoesh united na